“Bumps In Road” Continue To Roil As Muslims Protest

(Reuters) As delegates from around the world gathered in New York for a U.N. General Assembly where the clash between free speech and blasphemy is bound to be raised, U.S. flags were once again burning in parts of the Muslim world.

Iranian students chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” outside the French embassy in Tehran in protest at the decision by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, days after widespread protests – some deadly – against a film made in the United States.

Shi’ite Muslims in the Nigerian town of Katsina burned U.S., French and Israeli flags and a religious leader called for protests to continue until the makers of the film and cartoons are punished.

In Athens, some protesters hurled bottles of water, stones and shoes at police who responded with teargas. Calm returned when demonstrators interrupted the protest to pray.

Hours later, dozens of Muslim inmates in Athens’ main prison set mattresses and bed sheets on fire in protest. Firemen with four engines battled the flames in some cells but police and government officials said late at night the situation was under control.

Nothing better than burning your own living space in response to a film and cartoon (supposedly) that you haven’t even seen. Obama referred to the protests and violence as “bumps in the road.” Bumps in the road can be fixed easily. Turning many Muslims away from the extremist and Salafist view of Islam, which is taught in so many mosques and madrassas around the world and gains hold of more and more Muslims every year.

(Western Australian) Pakistan distanced itself Sunday from a cabinet minister’s bounty for killing the maker of anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims”, as protests against the movie continued from Turkey to Hong Kong.

A spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf rejected the $100,000 (75,000-euro) bounty promised by Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, who on Saturday offered a “prize” for killing the filmmaker and invited the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to take part in the “noble deed”.

I can’t find anything that shows some Christian leader putting a bounty on the head of the “artist” who came up with “Piss Christ”. Can you?

In Sri Lanka, the 20,000 strong protesters carried banners blaming the Jews for the film. That should make liberals happy.

A perfect encapsulation of the extremists. Most women covered head to toe while wearing Salafist head bands similar to those of al Qaeda and the Taliban. Yet, liberals always find some excuse to not condemn these extremist views (nor the treatment of women by the Islamists).

We can certainly expect there to be lots of speeches by leaders of Muslim countries calling for international laws that stop the blasphemy of religion, which would only apply to people who insult Mohammed, of course.